ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Abstract

Starting and operating a new business involves considerable risk and effort to overcome the inertia against creating something new. In creating and growing a new venture, the entrepreneur assumes the responsibility and risks for its development and survival and enjoys the corresponding rewards. This risk is compounded for entrepreneurs who go international or who are in fact born global. The fact that consumers, businesspeople, and government officials from every part of the world are interested in entrepreneurship is evident from the increasing research on the subject, the large number of courses and seminars on the topic, the more than two million new enterprises started each year (despite a 70% failure rate), the significant coverage and focus by the media, and the realization that this is an important aspect of the economics of the developed, developing, and even controlled economies. Who is the focus of all this attention? Who is willing to accept all the risks and put forth the effort necessary to create a new venture? It may be a man or a woman, someone from an upper-class or lower-class background, a technologist or someone lacking technological sophistication, a college graduate, or a high school dropout. The person may be an investor, manager, nurse, salesperson, engineer, student, teacher, homemaker, or retiree. It is always someone able to juggle work, family, and civic responsibilities while meeting payroll. To provide an understanding of this person and the process of creating and growing a new venture on an international basis, this 9th edition of Entrepreneurship is divided into five major sections.